Remember when Sea Otter was about mountain bikes? Andrew L’Esperance sure does. The East Coast endurance expert landed a big win at the Fuego XL mountain bike race at Sea Otter on Saturday.
Life Time may be shifting its focus at Sea Otter to gravel, making Thursday’s elite gravel race the marquee race. L’Espy pulled a solid result before turning around 48 hours later and dominating the XC marathon event.
He also crushed the 90 mile gravel race, to be clear. The former World Cup racer kicked off his North American season with a 10th in that event. Up against a crowded field of top international gravel specialists, the former World Cup XCO racer finishing tenth is a big start to his Life Time Grand Prix season. In past years he’s moved up the standings later in the year when the more technical races on the calendar take place.
All this is good news for L’Esperance’s return to true privateer racing this season. Sort of. It’s sort of a tandem privateer program, alongside wife and long-time teammate Haley Smith (absent at Sea Otter due to illness). Last year, L’Esperance re-united with past Forward Racing teammate Sean Fincham. The year’s before that, he and Smith enjoyed a successful transition to endurance racing with the Maxxis Factory Racing program.
The Sea Otter results are the North American start, but L’Esperance already has had a big and busy 2026 season. Partnering up with Lachlan Morton at Cape Epic, L’Esperance rode into the top 15. With strong results in South Africa at the world’s premiere XC stage race and, now, at Sea Otter, it’ll be exciting to see what the Canadian can accomplish this season.
Last year, L’Esperance worked his way back up into the top 10 of the Life Time Grand Prix after earning his way into the series via the debut of that series’ Wildcard program. The ever shifting and evolving rules of LTGP saw L’Esperance earn a spot in that series before the season started. A little more certainty in the race calendar is already looking like a good thing.